Singapore to Zurich

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We rose at about 7:00 am, showered and ate breakfast at the Novotel. By the time we had done that it was close to 8:30 am and we had about 2 hours to fill before our return driver was due to collect us at 10:30 am. Majella had a few ideas for filling that time based on her previous travels to Singapore for work. Some of those could have taken us some distance away but we opted for Chinatown which could be reached by a short walk or a single station ride on the MRT from Clarke Quay. We decided to walk and retain the MRT as an option for getting back to the hotel for our ride to the airport.

Joel tried fresh coconut milk at a stall in Chinatown.

We headed off through Clarke Quay and then followed New Bridge Road down to Chinatown, arriving at about 9:00 am as the first shops and stalls were opening for the day. It took little persuasion to get Joel to buy, and try drinking from, a fresh coconut but he found it a bit too sweet for his taste and we eventually discarded most of it. We walked on for a bit without finding much of interest that was open on the main street. Eventually we spotted a side street that seemed to be coming to life and spent 15 minutes or so browsing the shops and stalls there. Joel and Majella each made a couple of purchases before I noticed the time and encouraged them to begin walking, as briskly as they could manage, back to our hotel so that we could check out and be ready for our transfer back to the airport.

Back at the hotel we completed our packing and checked out to wait for our driver who arrived on time, just after 10:30 am. Traffic was light so we made it to the airport quickly and were checked in well ahead of our scheduled departure at 1:55 pm. Once we had passed through immigration and security we had time to check out the airport shopping before boarding our flight.

More than 12 hours, at least 5 movies (for me – Joel and Majella spent some time playing games), and 2 meals later, we arrived in Zurich at about 8:30 pm in broad daylight. We had good views of the green countryside on the way in, made it through the formalities and found the shuttle for our transfer to the Novotel where we were booked in for the night. We had eaten sufficient during the flight and, given that Friday, 8:30 pm in Zurich was Saturday, 2:30 am in Singapore and 4:30 am in Brisbane, our original point of departure, we were all more than ready for bed.

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